Award route card · one-way
The zone-pricing quirk corridor. KrisFlyer files Sri Lanka in the same Zone 6 as all of India, so Colombo pays Bengaluru prices — 45,000 Saver for business — on 450 fewer kilometres of flying. The real play is the hometown underdog: SriLankan is oneworld metal, and 1,708 miles lands it in the Avios band that sells the same cabin for 24,500. Asia Miles can also ticket UL but publishes no partner chart, and Air India's April-2026 chart prices nothing out of Colombo — we don't print guesses.
The play · business
Feed it: 24,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 49,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 24,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan nonstop (oneworld), partner distance band | 24,500 | — | ₹24,500 | the play |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Singapore Airlines nonstop, Saver (Zone 6 chart) | 45,000 | — | ₹49,500 | 2.0× |
The play · economy
Feed it: 12,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 25,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 12,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
| Program | Metal / routing | Points | Surcharge | All-in ₹ | vs play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avios (BA / Qatar / Finnair) | SriLankan nonstop (oneworld), partner distance band | 12,500 | — | ₹12,500 | the play |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Singapore Airlines nonstop, Saver (Zone 6 chart) | 19,000 | — | ₹20,900 | 1.7× |
All-in ₹ = points × the program's house value (valuation index) + the sourced one-way surcharge; a dash means the carrier doesn't publish it and the ranking counts it ₹0 — the row's note carries the caveat. “Dynamic” rows never compete for the play. Feed-ins come from the same transfer data as the optimizer, multi-hop chains included.
The play. 24,500 Avios (post-Dec-2025 band) for UL business nonstop — 20,500 points under KrisFlyer's Saver for the same corridor. BA prices partners per leg at peak-equivalent rates; taxes on top, UL's carrier charges are modest but unpublished.
Feed it: 24,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 49,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 24,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
45,000 Saver — up 5% in the Nov-2025 devaluation, and the same toll Bengaluru pays for a longer flight. Four Indian issuers feed KrisFlyer, but on this corridor the chart two rows down does the same cabin for a little over half the points.
Feed it: 45,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 22,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1)
1,708 flown miles puts UL's nonstop in the 1,151–2,000-mile band: 12,500 Avios one-way after the 15-Dec-2025 repricing (was 11,000). Cheapest published seat on the corridor, and six Indian issuers mint Avios.
Feed it: 12,500 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 25,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1) · 12,500 HSBC Reward Points (1:1)
The Nov-2025 chart's Zone 6 is "India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh" — one price for the whole subcontinent, 19,000 Saver each way. Ex-CMB taxes aren't published on the chart; budget a few thousand rupees, not an ex-Europe-style surcharge.
Feed it: 19,000 HDFC Reward Points (1:1) · 9,500 Axis EDGE Miles (1:2) · 38,000 Amex Membership Rewards (2:1)